The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the availability of a final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for the Local Meat Capacity (Local MCap) Grants program. The PEA analyzes and discloses the potential environmental impacts associated with the establishment of the Local MCap grant program.

The Local MCap program supports independently owned meat and poultry processing businesses with funds to provide more and better processing options for local livestock producers by giving them the ability to increase their meat and poultry processing capacity and to modernize, diversify and decentralize their processing operations, including rendering.

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) published a draft PEA and a request for public comments on Oct. 31, 2023. Based on the analysis conducted under the draft PEA, AMS has confirmed there will not be a significant impact to the human environment. As a result, AMS will not prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

AMS intends for this PEA to establish a framework that will make any future assessments more efficient by placing project-specific actions that may need more analysis into priority tiers. As decisions on specific applications are made, if additional National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis is required, the agency will conduct an environmental review to supplement the analysis set forth in this PEA.

AMS announced a Request for Applications for Local MCap for up to $75 million in grant funding on April 29, 2023. Applications were due July 29, 2023.

A Notice of Availability of the draft PEA is available for viewing in the Federal Register. For more information about the Local MCap or to view the PEA, visit the AMS Local MCap webpage.

Source: USDA